Help with natural incubation

[LShafer12]

Ok. I need help with my 6 ducks (3 male, 3 female). Two females started sitting on their nests so we let them start naturally incubating their eggs. Before long, we noticed that the ladies were eating their own eggs. We tried candling more often to determine which eggs were no longer viable, which seemed to help ... But yesterday, we had to throw away the lady of thor eggs, as they were beginning to smell rotten, too.

1. We feel terrible, because the females seem so upset that we took away their hard work. How do we go about starting the process again? Should we wait a while? Or will it take a while for them to start laying eggs again?
2. What in the world can we do to help their eggs survive? Should we candle the eggs - or just leave them be and let them pick out the bad ones?


Lots more questions ... But I think you may get the picture! We just want it to work out and are willing to do whatever it takes -- prefer to naturally incubate, though.

Thanks for any input!

 

[chrismahon]

Welcome to the forum LShafer. Sounds like the eggs were infertile or the females were too young to be incubating or both. Two years old I would advise. Check the eggs being laid now for fertility by looking at the blastoderm. Search the forum for that. You will get a link from Darkbrowneggs to her site which has some great pictures.

 

[LShafer12]

Thanks Chris. These ducks are 1 year old -- is that perhaps just too young still? They WANTED to be on their eggs, so we let them... but maybe they just aren't ready?

Once we began candling, we got better at picking out the infertile eggs. Unfortunately, some that were beginning to develop, still went bad after a little bit of time.

Is the age factor of the ducks just that they haven't developed all of those "motherly instincts?" Or is there more to it than that?

Also read somewhere that your'e supposed to wash the eggs -- is this JUST for artificial incubation? Does everyone out there that does natural incubation candle their eggs regularly or do you let the ducks do everything? Rookie questions, I know -- but just eager to learn so we can be successful next time. 02

 

[chrismahon]

My experience is with chickens, which are left to do everything LShafer. They are over two years old because maturity helps. You can get results with younger but our experience isn't good- the 15 month old hen ate the chicks as they hatched! Young birds can lose interest sitting for that long although they must get up to feed and drink even if you make them or they starve, die of thirst and their legs seize up. The eggs won't suffer if she is off them for an hour. They go into a kind of trance when sitting and just sit.

Just need to keep them in a secure place so that the chicks won't get attacked by rats and crows. You don't need to clean the eggs. But naturally the losses are higher from bacterial infection, just off the mother. Usually get them dying at 4 -7 days of that. We have had a Mallard with 13 chicks on the canal, so the losses can't be that high.

Lewis Wright's book 'Management of Poultry' of 1867 and 1901 covers natural rearing of chickens well. Not sure if it covers rearing of ducks although they are described. Download free from University of California web site. There are other versions but they are transcripts, not photos of the original pages.

 

[AlexArt]

I've always found in the past ducks can be pretty awful mothers and age does sometimes play a part - the older ones do tend to be slightly calmer, the only ones I've had really good success rates with is muscovys and they're not technically ducks!! What breed of duck do you have? - some breeds like runners and campbells don't tend to go broody and if they do they sometimes get off halfway through.
Personally I always move broodies, of either chooks or ducks, into their own seperate rat proof run and house so the others don't keep laying eggs in their nest or trying to fight to sit on them or lay, which breaks the eggs and makes them eat them, and creates a very messy stinky nest which won't then hatch anything. It also ensures the eggs are that bit cleaner and you can monitor how long they leave the eggs for to determine if they are really broody - always start out with a bunch of eggs that are just there to determine broodiness - they can be hard boiled even, once they are really serious you can put your actual eggs under her at night then you know for sure they are all started at the same time. A bit of dirt and mud on the eggs is normal and perfectly fine so I wouldn't wash them as you remove the protective layer off the eggs and force bugs into the pores.

Ducks don't eat their duff eggs just ones that get broken or if they have got a taste for them, in the wild ducks will just sit on a clutch and when they hatch they will keep sitting for a certain amount of time and those that don't hatch they simply leave behind. You will also notice they will line their nest with down feathers before going broody and starting a clutch. Success rates are pretty high, even wild ducks usually get a very high hatch rate and may only get one or 2 duffs, my muscovys used to get a 95% hatch rate everytime - they multiplied like rabbits!!!

If I were you I'd get the egg eating cycle broken, so either try and stop them going broody by removing all the eggs everyday until they get bored and wait till next year, or move the most determined to a seperate pen at night so she doesn't freak out and set her on some eggs and see what she does, if she's still sitting in a few days and happy in her pen, then stick some eggs under her you really want. You could also set eggs in an inci then leave the broody on duff eggs in her run - that way it doesn't matter what happens to the eggs, you can either then stick the eggs under her at night when they pip or leave to hatch in the inci and stick them under her at night to fluff up so she wakes up with them. Keeping a broody in a pen will also stop the drakes humping the hell out of the duck when she goes to get her food etc especially since you have alot of drakes, and they can get chased off their eggs too by a determined drake!
I personally don't candle eggs under a broody until at least day 12 or so, and do it only at night so you don't spook her. Chuck out any duffs and leave till hatching.

 

[tygrysek75]

My friend does exacly as AlexArt said,and she also using the incy and after they huch will go to mother duck,but you can also have a very bad expirience with them as you allready know.Broody alway separate from others for the reason mentioned earlier.